Quote:Sheriff's officials say Ronald Westbrook, 72, had walked about three miles in sub-freezing temperatures with his two dogs, then knocked on 34-year-old Joe Hendrix's door. They say Hendrix, who is "saddened and heartbroken," walked outside the home he rented in the Chickamauga, a neighborhood near the Tennessee border, and confronted Westbrook. He gave several verbal commands but Westbook, who was slow to talk, continued to walk toward him, the paper reported.

"In my personal opinion, I believe that he should have stayed inside the house," he said. "Did he violate any laws by exiting the house? No."

- Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson

Hendrix, fearing for his safety, fired his handgun four times at the man, killing him with a bullet to the chest, police said. Westbrook was holding letters mailed to a home he used to live in in the neighborhood and was wearing a light jacket and straw hat despite freezing temperatures.

Prepare for this to start a whole new attack on SYG laws. While the Sheriff is correct in his statement of not breaking any laws, the homeowner, I believe, was wrong. There are choices to be made before shooting, and I don't feel that the homeowner made the right one.

Agreed, and I have no idea what Georgia's laws are, and this article is seriously lacking just about the necessary details, but this really sounds like a bad shoot. This thing is still under investigation though, and I hope we can get more info about what really happened, but it all makes no sense to me *as reported*.

Damn shame isn't it? The kind of thing that passes for reporting? Been that way as long as I can remember too.

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”